The Scarlet X
by Sevish
Summary: This was meant to under my cutting room floor series but I didn't think it would get the attention I wanted it too. Wanda calls Scott to talk one night and things get largely out of hand. VERY loosely taken from the book The Scarlet Letter.


The Scarlet X

**All characters that have been seen before in the comics and in the animated series X-men: Evolution are property of Marvel Inc. Characters, further more, created by me are my property and all that that implies.**

The Change had happened a long time ago, he couldn't remember when exactly it had happened but it had none the less. This was really the first time he had really ever tried something like this in his straight laced life. He walked up to the bouncer (who towered over him by at least a foot and a half) and showed the man his ID. It was a fake but the bouncer did not need to know that. After a few seconds of scrutiny the bouncer reluctantly nodded him in. He was actually pretty surprised that he got through, but what made him the most surprised was that he was actually doing this. He had been invited by someone who was supposed to be his enemy and he had not even asked for backup.

Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, had invited him to this club (which was surprisingly clean) and asked him to come alone. As Field leader of the students of Xavier's school for the gifted, his mind told him that he should not have gone at all, but his gut told him something completely different. It told him that Wanda needed help and that she wanted it from him. Scott Summers, also known as Cyclops, had not walked more that five steps into the club before someone waived at him. It was Wanda, or at least it thought it was. Wanda had been a very gothic looking young woman and had a personality to match, but one day she had just become different. The hate she had always harbored for her father was now replaced with a normal love. Magneto must have done something to her. However, the person that was now waiving at him was not the gothic girl he had fought so many times before, but a young woman with light brown hair that extended just below her shoulders and a light smattering of makeup meant to accent her natural beauty (as opposed to covering it up) "Scott! Over here." She called out

She was at a normal table that was tucked away in a corner; she was alone. Wanda had chosen a red tube top that accented her second skin pants of the same color perfectly. Scott walked over to the table and sat down across from the girl. "What do you need, Wanda?" Scott asked directly. Wanda looked up from her drink with a strange look in her blue eyes.

"Scott, I've changed, haven't I?

"What?"

"I mean, I feel like I should hate my father. I feel like he did something to me that was unforgivable but I can't remember what." Wanda leaned in to take another sip of her drink. It reeked of Alcohol and so did she, though she did not seem drunk. Scott moved around to the other side and sat next to her. Gently, he pulled her drink out of her reach.

"Listen, I don't what happened to you, but I do know that you hated your father. It consumed you and I think it might have even lead to your death if you weren't careful." Wanda looked up at him with foggy eyes. Whether it was from the alcohol or emotion he did not know, "I don't like to see anyone on a self destructive binge, and you were the worst. You hated your father so much you tried to kill him once. That was something that would have made you not only an enemy of the X-men but of the law too. If you ask me, I think what he did to make you stop hating him, however wrong it might have been, was a good thing. He gave you a future that was not full of hate and murderous intent. He gave you a future."

"I knew I'd asked the right person." Wanda muttered under her breath.

For a moment, everything was silent, well, as silent as it gets in a club and Wanda moved close to Scott. He did not know if it was the alcohol making her dizzy or if it was something else completely but she was moving uncomfortably close to him. However, before anything could happen a pair of guys that looked like they were in college moved to the edge of their table. "Hey there cutie, why so sad?" said the first

"Leave, now." Wanda spat.

"You don't have to be a bitch about it." Snapped the other, "Just dump the looser and come with us, we'll have a good time."

"You heard her, leave, now." Reiterated Scott as his already red glasses seemed to glow brighter.

"Alright, tough guy, we'll leave. But we're taking this with us!" the first reached across the table and grabbed Wanda's top and ripped it from her chest in one clean pull while the other pulled out a camera phone and snapped several pictures before Wanda had the chance to cover herself and Scott could slip his jacket over her shoulders. Like most women that wore tube tops, she had not worn a bra. Scott got up to give chase to the two jerks as they took off in door's direction, and would have caught them had they not been stopped by the bouncer. He was a tall stout man that seemed to be built from pure muscle, and he had grabbed both, one in each hand. He slammed them to the ground as he, literally, began sweeping the floor with them. Under the pressure they dropped both the camera (which Scott promptly stomped into oblivion) and the tube top. Scott grabbed the top and handed it to Wanda, who was comfortable clothed in Scott's leather jacket.

The top was ripped and probably not repairable, still she put it in one of the Jacket's pockets. "Come on," Scott stated, "I've had enough of this place, and we need to get you someplace you sleep of all that alcohol." Wanda kicked one of the rude guys in the ribs, wobbly, "Come on." He put her arm around his shoulder and his around her waist and helped her out of the club. Scott helped her to his car where he sat her in the passenger seat and propped her back in the chair. It was times like this that he thanked God that he had been given the sense to abstain from drinking.

When he had gotten her safely in the car, he drove her to the Brotherhood house despite it being nearly morning already. He pulled his drunken comrade from his car and used her key to get them in the house. Quietly, he snuck her through the messy abode. Under the quiet direction provided by Wanda, Scott found the room she needed to be in and laid her on the bed. However, as he did so, Wanda locked her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. "How dish I mish a guy like you."

"Wanda, you're drunk."

"Am not."

Scott smiled, he was not going to get anywhere like this, "Are too." He pulled her off of him and made his way for the door.

"Scott," he turned to find Wanda unzipping his jacket from her torso, "You forgot your jacket."

"That's fine, keep it for now. You can give it back when you're sober." Scott turned and walked out; he had to get out of here before someone tried to kill him. Thankfully, his car was a Shelby cobra, and not many chasers could match its speed. Well, not after some of the engine modifications that he had done. In any case the Xavier institute was his next stop.

VVV

The next morning Wanda found herself in her own bed half naked with Scott's jacket lying beside her. She didn't remember much and kicked herself for drinking in the first place. She kicked herself again for doing it in public. Though, while she didn't remember much she did remember that Scott had been a complete gentleman in their encounter. She looked at the clock; it was six o'clock in the morning. The brotherhood was still asleep, but maybe Xavier's students weren't. She through on a t-shirt Todd had gotten her for her birthday (a bright read Nintendo brand t-shirt that had 'I've got control issues' written across it), and left. It was a Saturday so many of the people in the brotherhood would be in bed until noon, which was good, seeing as she would have plenty of time to go and come back without being noticed.

She pulled on Scott's jacket, and snuck quietly from the brotherhood boarding house. She caught the bus to another section of the suburbs to the gates of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. It was always a sight to behold, the mansion. The thing first anyone always ran into were the gates. They were at least eight feet high and two feet thick, the bars were made from a nearly indestructible alloy known as Adamantium. For the most part of the day these were left open. It was a policy Professor Xavier had. Any one who wanted to learn about the ways of mutants could and, thanks to the help of a man named strange, anyone who wished the mansions inhabitants harm had the gates shut on them.

Wanda walked to the gates that were wide open; she looked at the gates hesitantly but slowly moved forward. The gates made no move to bar her entry. Confident, Wanda moved to the inner campus of the Xavier institute and, after several minutes of walking, reached the front door. Wanda took off Scott's jacket and laid it over her arm. She rang the door bell timidly hoping that someone would hear and just come to the door. "I'm coming!" echoed a muffled feminine voice from inside. Just give whoever it was the jacket and get gone, she told herself. She even contemplated just leaving it on the door step and running, but that would be wrong. Scott needed to know that she appreciated what he had done for her.

The door opened and there she was with a confused look in her eyes, she looked down at the jacket on Wanda's arm, and then back up to Wanda's face. It seemed that she was struck speechless so Wanda decided to make the first move. "I… uh… came to return this to Scott."

"I see. Thanks Wanda." Kitty said with her usual perk of tone as she took the jacket, "I'll give it to him."

"Thanks Kitty." Wanda moved to leave as Kitty closed the door. As soon as the door was completely closed and there was no sign of anyone watching her, Wanda dropped all pretenses and broke into the fastest run she could. She knew it was only a matter of time before a bomb dropped.

Inside, things were going much the way Wanda had expected they would be when a certain red head came to answer the door expecting that no one else was up. She looked at Kitty as she held Scott's jacket. "Kitty," said Jean, "What are you doing with that?"

"Well, it was delivered here."

"By who?"

"Well," Kitty stalled not wanting to be in the middle of the situation she was currently. As she stalled her friend she rolled the jacket around in her hands trying to think of what to do. However, as she did so, a thin piece of red cloth fell from the pocket. Jean picked it up and found it was a red tube top that looked as if it had been ripped off by someone particularly amorous.

VVV

Scott's head was pounding; he looked over at the clock at the side of his bed. It was too early to be having a hangover, but then he thought. Scott hadn't had anything to drink last night, why was his head pounding? Scott grasped for his glasses and hastily put them on as his senses came back to him. It was not his head that was pounding, it was his door. This could not be good. He moved silently to his door, and opened it quietly. When it was open all of the way he was hit by a flying piece of cloth. Scott sighed heavily when he realized just what the cloth was. He opened his mouth to speak when he found that it was forcibly shut by an invisible presence. "A girl came by today. She was returning your jacket." Scott visibly winced, "but it seems that that wasn't the only thing she was returning! Who was she, Scott?"

Scott found himself able to speak again, though he doubted he would be heard, "Jean, Wanda called me last night…"

"Wanda!?! It was WANDA!?! She's our enemy, Scott!"

"Listen, damn it! It's not like what you're thinking!"

"Oh, you can read minds now?" Jean scoffed

"I know what you're thinking…"

"You might know, but I don't care," a tear rolled down her right cheek, "I thought you were different, Scott." He knew what was coming; he could smell it in the air. A thick heavy smell, as if the air itself had become mud. "We're through." Jean stomped out of the room.

"Damn it." He muttered to himself.


End file.
